A Rant on Responsibility

I was recently contacted by a reader who offered some criticism and suggestions, some of which were very good and which I intend to take. However, one comment that was made sits in my craw, and needs to be aired out publicly lest any other readers have similar unfounded ideas. Here is the comment in question:

to give you an example: few months back i read your thesis about ADI which was totaly negative. had i listned to you or taken your argument into acoount i would have dumped my over 5000 shares at around $34. what did it reach today? $40.56. a gain of over $30,000. there have been other cases like this.

Here’s my beef, beefs, beeves or however you want to phrase it:

1. It sounds like you did what you ought to: found various points of view and formed your own opinion. Good job.
2. I don’t ask you to listen to me or even take my argument into account. In fact, just the opposite. At the bottom of each post (though it is not reprinted at Seeking Alpha, where this reader seems to have done most of the reading) is the disclaimer: This article is for entertainment purposes only and reflects the author’s opinion. It is not a solicitation or advice to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Always consult a qualified advisor before making investment decisions. The articles here are NOT advice to do anything.
3. Specifically, it is not advice to sell your 5000 shares of ADI. I don’t know that you even have 5000 shares of ADI or anything else about you, so how could I possibly recommend that you sell them? (This addresses the reader’s comment specifically but all comments in general as well.) Without knowing your holdings, your income, your other investments, your goals and liabilities there is no way in hell I can offer you advice. So I don’t. I give my opinion, which anyone is free to either consider or ignore – but not to act on. You have to take your own responsibility for that.
4. Speaking of which, we looked for a “thesis about ADI” on these pages that might possibly be construed so bearishly as to promote such action and could not find one.
5. In reading these articles, remember that you should never ever ever act solely on what some jackass has written on the Internet. Particularly this jackass.
6. At a minimum you should seek out counter-arguments, read the company’s filings with the SEC, find other sources of information about the company and its business and consult your advisor. You also might want to consider interviewing employees, customers and suppliers, conducting site visits and other forms of due diligence.
7. Did we mention that you should not consider any opinions found here to be advice? Well, you shouldn’t.

Hope that helps.

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